Storage Solutions Samsung SSD 980 1TB Firmware queries

[nRiTeCh]

It has been almost a year I'm seeing this notification in Samsung Magician on availability of an updated firmware for my ssd.

I have data on the ssd as its not been used for OS but additional storage so unsure if the upgrade wipes-off the data or not hence never gave a try. So does an upgrade results in a a data loss?

Secondly, I bumped into these threads

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...-slow-writes-after-fw-update-2b4qfxo7.296206/

ssd nvme 980 extremely slow after firmware update 2B4QFXO7

Hi there I need help to flash back previous firmware of my SSD nvme 980 1To, or to get it working. Samsung Magician notified me that a new firmware was available and I made the mistake to release the updade. I'm now with a write speed of 4MB/s. Before the update it was working fine at 2700MB/s...

us.community.samsung.com

where the user is complaining of severe drive performance degradation after applying the firmware.

I'm sure many of us here owns this ssd, has anyone applied the firmware? Hows the performance, is there any noticeable good or bad difference?

I dont want to mess things and get into complications like rolling-back to earlier ver. etc.

Kindly share experiences and suggestions which can help me decide weather to opt for the update or not.

 

[Heisen]

I don't have this ssd, but I can tell you if there is an update for the ssd, then you should definitely do it, even if it decreases its performance. It will be better for it in the long run.

A company like samsung won't release an update just to slow down the SSD, I believe there must be more to it. Only ignore in case if all the users are facing seriously slow speed after update.

 

[princeoo7]

I normally do it for 970plus !

 

[n1r0]

What does the changelog say? Unless there's a critical fix, I wouldn't bother updating firmwares, which are not like Windows/anti-virus updates where you need to have the latest version. Firmware != software.

Same thing for BIOS/UEFI. Just because there's a newer version, doesn't mean you have to flash it. Unless it offers a security patch for a vulnerability/improved performance/adds a new feature that you actually want to use. Flashing firmware is always risky - you could brick a device altogether.

 

[Heisen]

I wouldn't bother updating firmwares, which are not like Windows/anti-virus updates where you need to have the latest version. Firmware != software.

In case of SSDs you should, those are not frequent updates, its usually something important in the case of SSDs, could be compatibility issue, excessive writes problems, bugs like SSDs going into read only mode, uneven wear level issues etc etc.

Its very important for the company to make sure that their product won't die in the field nilly-willy, because if it did, a customer is gone and will take other potential upcoming customers with him, as they say first impression is the last impression.

 

[enthusiast29]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Wait for reviews and clarity. I'm saying this because there's no easy way to revert it if it's faulty.

I would suggest to upgrade if there was a way to rollback.

 

[nRiTeCh]

I will better not update since many random users are facing some odd issues and most importantly not all updates are good be it phone, firmware, ssds, windows or avs etc.
Sometimes updates do F== up the device requiring the painful route of rolling-back.

This is my second ssd and thought better to ask as on my first ssd, the performance degraded a bit after I upgraded where the change-log seemed promising.

 

[skt907]

I normally do it for 970plus !

How do you do it? Do you need to use Samsung magician bloatware or you can do it through Windows directly?

 

[t3chg33k]

How do you do it? Do you need to use Samsung magician bloatware or you can do it through Windows directly?

There isn't any other way. Butnat least you can uninstall it when not needed.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Wait for reviews and clarity. I'm saying this because there's no easy way to revert it if it's faulty.

I would suggest to upgrade if there was a way to rollback.

An error in Samsung's 980 Pro firmware is causing SSDs to die. I'd check your drive right now tbh

Update or say goodbye to your Samsung SSD. If only that was the only issue affecting its drives today, but...

www.pcgamer.com

Sometimes, if it ain't broken, it might break and you'd better fix it.

 

[enthusiast29]

An error in Samsung's 980 Pro firmware is causing SSDs to die. I'd check your drive right now tbh

Update or say goodbye to your Samsung SSD. If only that was the only issue affecting its drives today, but...

www.pcgamer.com

Sometimes, if it ain't broken, it might break and you'd better fix it.

I'm perfectly aware of that issue and in such exceptional cases a lot of noise is created in the media. It's generally fine to upgrade in that case.
Exceptions are everywhere.

 

[t3chg33k]

I'm perfectly aware of that issue and in such exceptional cases a lot of noise is created in the media. It's generally fine to upgrade in that case.
Exceptions are everywhere.

Samsung 870 EVO - Beware, certain batches prone to failure!

Certain 870 EVO 4TB and 2TB drives are affected by early failures where they develop uncorrectable errors and some data just cannot be read from them anymore. This seems to primarily affect drives produced in January/February 2021. For example, i have three 870 EVO 4TB, only one is affected (so...

www.techpowerup.com

It happened with the 870 Evo before that. In most cases, the firmware the devices shipped with caused the failure.

The updates are usually for security and reliability, and quite infrequent. It is fine to wait and see, but most users are not going to check the changelog diligently. There have been lesser cases of issues with newer firmware versions compared to older ones.